Now that he’s safely ensconced for another four years, Mayor Bill Purcell can focus on what he’s going to do to make a name for himself as mayor.
Second terms are frequently seen as the time when politicians get to show their true colors after a first term devoted mainly to making sure there is a second term. That was certainly the case, for example, with the three previous governors—Don Sundquist, Ned McWherter and Lamar Alexander—all of whom saved their most ambitious initiatives for their fifth year in office.
(In that vein, one of the more colorful acknowledgements of this reality came from Frank Rizzo, who once served as the hard-line, law-and-order mayor of Philadelphia. Pondering reelection, Rizzo declared, “Once we get this election past us, we’re going so far to the right it will make Attila the Hun look like a fag.”)
Purcell, of course, hasn’t exactly been a do-nothing mayor, having pushed through a major tax increase that primarily channels more funds into schools and the paychecks of teachers and other public employees. He was able to do so without much opposition because he did significant political groundwork to make people ready to accept what he was trying to do—in contrast to the bungled state fiscal process that was playing out at the same time.
Much of the rest of what Purcell has accomplished has been on the operating side of government, which tends not to get people stirred up in the same way.
If he follows the pattern of the last three mayoral terms, Purcell probably will seek another tax increase next spring—presumably for education (all tax increases are for “education”) and for something else, whatever that may be. While Purcell hasn’t really stepped out yet for a big community project (like the arena or the library), the prospects of a downtown baseball stadium and/or a new convention center loom. So this term will be his opportunity to initiate something more dramatic than the dutiful ship steering he’s been busy with up until now.
What he chooses to do may all hinge on his future aspirations. There probably won’t be an opening to run for governor as a Democrat until 2010. Sen. Bill Frist, meanwhile, may well step down in 2006, given that he said he would only serve two terms. That would set the stage for a bare-knuckle contest for the open seat. Then again, Purcell himself recently told the Scene that he didn’t believe Frist would—or should—give up the seat after two terms as Frist promised he would during his first campaign.
“When he ran the first time, we hadn’t had Sept. 11, we hadn’t had Afghanistan, we hadn’t had Iraq, we didn’t have the national understanding about the challenges in Africa...and Bill Frist is now the United States Senate majority leader,” Purcell said. “I think frankly—and I know that this is not the conventional wisdom—I believe that Bill Frist is going to be our senator for a very long time.”
Phil may wish it were Willis
Who knew back when Planet Hollywood—remember that?—was opening its restaurant in Nashville in 1996 that two future governors were having cocktails at the same bar? The delegation of movie star types on hand to lend pre-staged glamour to the event included not only then-Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, now the governor of Tennessee, but also muscle man Arnold Schwarzenegger, then just a Hollywood action figure. Schwarzenegger, who will soon be sworn in as governor of California, was one of the group of entertainers given a stake in the movie-themed restaurant chain in exchange for promotional activities.
In conjunction with the opening, a rather dreary reception was held inside the restaurant—its only apparent purpose being to have something for the stars to do after they paraded past the peasants outside. (Some brilliant event organizer didn’t think the members of the Metro Council needed to be invited—a judgment that required some subsequent thought when the restaurant needed a waiver from the council to hang its oversized globe sign over the sidewalk.)
Neither Schwarzenegger nor the other muscle man on hand, Sylvester Stallone, made much of a positive impression on Bredesen, who noted at the time that they didn’t really seem interested in discharging their promotional duties.
The guy who did impress Bredesen, though, was actor Bruce Willis, who worked the crowd and focused on what he was there to do—which is the sort of thing that Bredesen rates highly.
Like Schwarzenegger, Willis is a Republican. But now that California has spoken, it’s Arnold that Bredesen will see at the National Governors Association meetings. In which case, he should be sure to leave Andrea at home.
